After dominating the TCR Europe SIM series, Dániel Nagy began the actual racing series on the right foot, as he set the fastest lap in the very first session at Circuit Paul Ricard.
Towards the end of the 30-minute Practice, the Hungarian driver and his Hyundai i30 N completed a lap of 2:13.303 that was only 31 thousandths of a second faster than Andreas Bäckman’s 2:13.334.
The first driver to go under the 2:14 mark was Jimmy Clairet who set a provisional fastest lap of 2:13.952 that was later improved by guest star Néstor Girolami to 2:13.527 before Bäckman and Nagy moved ahead.
Jimmy Clairet managed to improve again to 2:13.793, which gave him the fourth position ahead of Mehdi Bennani (2:13.888), Mike Halder (2:13.918), Daniel Lloyd (2:13.921) and Teddy Clairet (2:13.968). Julien Briché (2:14.056) and Sami Taoufik (2:13.314) rounded off the top-ten.
The Peugeot of Jean-Laurent Navarro was the only car unable to join, due to an ECU issue, while Tom Coronel missed the second part of the session after damaging the front splitter over a kerb.

“We started on the right foot. It doesn’t really mean anything because we are right at the start of the race weekend and everyone needs to find their rhythm. I think we were quite quick in that session and I really enjoyed the circuit, but I think in FP2 there’ll be a completely different order and all eyes will be on Qualifying tomorrow. It was amazing to finally be out on track to start the season. We did some testing over the last couple of weeks and I enjoyed every single lap. For me, the season started in quite a difficult way. We have a completely new compound of Yokohama tyre; I was really struggling at the beginning and I had to change my driving style. I’m still working to adapt because in all of my Touring Car career I have had a totally different specification of tyre and it’s difficult to change. But I have a good team and they are helping me a lot,” said Nagy.

The second free practice will take place at 14:20.

Practice 1
1. 2:13.303 – Dániel Nagy (BRC Racing Team, Hyundai i30 N)
2. 2:13.334 – Andreas Bäckman (Target Competition, Hyundai i30 N)
3. 2:13.527 – Néstor Girolami (PSS Racing Team, Honda Civic Type R)
4. 2:13.793 – Jimmy Clairet (Team Clairet Sport, Peugeot 308)
5. 1:13.888 – Mehdi Bennani (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS)